While I know many of you are within the throws of standardized testing, Spring Fever and truly just ready for a sanity break I have been busy working on new material and some revamping of some older material that I know you will be excited for when they are released this summer.

Today I will be heading to Little Rock, Arkansas for the Arkansas Association of Middle Level Educators. This conference for middle school teachers is on Monday and Tuesday and will defintiely be excited to see these teachers again after speaking there last summer as well.

After this conference I am happy to say that I have a dedicated time before the round of summer conferences and will be working like mad on products! Not only will I be updating some products that have been there for awhile (I know you will enjoy the updates) but I also have some great new ones coming your way.

What are you looking for to use next year? Any specific things you want more of? I’m starting my list and checking it twice!

We all have clutter in our lives and having that clutter at school where we spend so much of our time can make life miserable. For the first two months of 2015 I focused on covering SIXdifferent clutter busters for teachers. These posts were things that resounded with me as a teacher and I know from talking to numerous teachers that we all still struggle with them.

First up was all about Class Schedules and Calendars in the classroom. How can you make sure that you are making the most of your time in your classroom each and every day as well as throughout the school year?

Next up was Being Prepare for a Substitute which as we all know is something that is SUPER IMPORTANT! We are all human and things happen so we never know when something will happen and we will have to be absent at the last minute so take some time now and get prepared!

And my OCDself loved the next post about Managing Supplies for Classes. As a teacher who had 6 different classes every single day with four different preps, I HADto be organized and know where everything was at all times. Because I took time to do this it also paid off with my students because they could find things!

How many of you are notorious for having an unorgainzed computer desktop? Managing your Desktop Clutter is not only about managing the actual desktop of your computer but also your files that are stored within your computer and extrenal drives.

Now.. how many of you have problems with keeping up with papers in yoru classroom? Managing the Paper Trail is all about managing papers to grade, make-up work, graded papers, sorting papers, and even the infamous Teacher Mailbox.

And last, but certainly not least, was a post about finding the PERFECTTeacher Bag. There are so many different styles of bags that I have shared including the ins and outs of the ones that I have used in the past.

Are you ready for another giveaway? Stephanie from OohBabyDesigns has asked to join in on the Teacher Totes fun and giveaway one of her FABULOUSTeacher Totes from her Etsy shop. I talked about these as a part of the finding the perfect teacher bag and was so happy that she contacted me about this because I knew that y’all would be THRILLED!

A little bit about the bags:

I have 7 teachers in my family. They were constantly going through tote bags! So, when I decided to design a tote, specifically for teachers, I asked my family and Facebook followers, “What would you like to see in a good teacher tote”? The most common answers where: Lots of pockets, nice wide straps (because of all the weight), easy to store in the summer, cute fabric choices and monograms. Voila! The Ooh Baby Teacher Tote was born!

This bag sports two big pockets with 3 individual sections that run the length of the bag (one inside and one outside – total 6) no matter which side you’re using! Since they are handmade by me, each side can be monogrammed if you choose to add one! The seams are double sewn and reinforced. the bag folds up flat for storage in the summer! The handles are made from 2 inch wide cotton weave webbing. This wide webbing is easier on the shoulders as it helps to distribute the weight of a fully loaded tote – and lets face it, teachers can load up a tote bag! The bag itself is made from screen printed cotton duck in a wide array of choices. You can choose any fabric in my shop!

And now, you have the chance to win one! Yep, this giveaway is for one LUCKY winner to win their very own Ooh Baby Teacher Tote! You will not be disappointed!

Thank you for all the amazing entries for the ePIc Pi Day Giveaway! I hope that you were able to celebrate in an amazing way, eat some pi and ROCKit out! Each of the winners will be contacted by theblogger who contributed the prize to send you your winning prize.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a round up of activities – so this week I thought I’d share some activities for Volume and Surface Area! While we can always use our “textbook” to teach about various concepts in our classroom we know that it is always more fun we have interactive and engaging activities in the hands of our students.

Volume and Surface Area Task Cards- Common Core and TEKS Aligned are a set of 16 task cards that I have created to assess Volume and Surface Area in your classroom. This originally started because I wanted to differentiate a quiz in my classroom and wanted different problems with different students. I honestly LOVE using Task Cards in that manner and my student’s know their neighbor has a different problem so they don’t even try and cheat. Also included in this set is a Volume and Surface Area bookmark listing the formulas for various 3D shapes!

*Volume of Cylinders
*Volume of Spheres
*Volume of Cones
*Volume of Rectangular Prisms
*Volume of Triangular Prisms
*Surface Area of Cylinders
*Surface Area of Spheres
*Surface Area of Cones
*Surface Area of Rectangular Prisms
*Surface Area of Triangular Prisms

HOLY HECK! I see a marathon station day in class coming soon! Wouldn’t this also be great for test prep? Make it a team competition to see which period can do the best overall that way the entire class is working together to solve their problems and communicate their thinking.

Sixth Grade Math Homework Sheets- Geometry are a simple set of homework sheets that include practice for Volume and Surface area. I loved creating these because I could easily test a standard for a student (standards are listed on the page in an “I Can” statement as well as the Common Core Standard) to check for mastery!

Who didn’t love Mad Libs (TM) growing up? All Things Algebra has created a Volume and Surface Area – Math Lib Activity! that incorporates the fun of Mad Libs (TM) and math to have fun and learn! I have seen many of these Math Libs and am itching to play myself!

Mrs. Reulbach has her students Create Tin Men to Explore Surface Area through Project Based Learning. I’m telling you this is just groovy! She has many more examples on her blog of robots that her students created and the requirements that she gave each of them. {Since these are not my students I decided to hide their identity as I do not have permission to post them on the internet.}

MissMathDork and her relays have me wishing I was still in the classroom! This Area, Perimeter, Circumference, Surface Area & Volume Review: Super Hero Relay is just fabulous! I remember using relays in my classroom when she first created them and the kids just LOVEDthem! We had pictures hanging up all around the room that showed off not only their talent in drawing as a group but also their skills in math. This relay allows students to work together collaboratively to solve a problem before it is checked by the teacher. Then the reward is drawing that part of the final image. As the turns rotate through the group a full picture forms.

Wrappers Wanted: A Mathematical Adventure in Surface Area is a fun Christmas story (yea, I know it is March) that illustrates surface area and allows students to visualize just exactly what the concept is. The book actually includes a lesson on how to incorporate this into your classroom as well! Already in my cart to add to my bookshelf!

I am always getting asked about manipulatives to use with different types of learning and I can’t recommend Learning Resources Overhead Folding Geometric Shapes enough. Not only are they great to demonstrate the visual of each shape and their net but you can fold them up and fill them to demonstrate volume and also have students measure each side length of the faces to determine the surface area. There are so many uses for their that you will NOTbe upset that these are taking up space on your shelf!

These ten Volume and Surface Area activitites are only the tip fo the iceberg on ways that you can teach the concepts in your classroom. I hope that one (or more) might tickle your fancy and get you excited to teach these concepts in a new and fun manner.

If you didn’t get a chance to check out their posts you definitely want to do that as there were some great tidbits of wisdom from each of them as well as links to some great products for you to use this week!

Also, don’t forget that Saturday is the final day for the ePIc Pi Day Giveaway where there is over $314 in prizes to be had with 12winners!

While you are out looking at some new Mathletes in your grade level (and hopefully adding some great things to your wishlist), what are you looking for in resources? How can we help your further your teaching at the secondary level? We’d love to here from you HERE!

Last but not least – we’re rounding out our ePIc Pi Week guest posts with Jamie from MissMathDork! Jamie is the math specialist/math coach at a middle school with grades 5th thru 8th, so she’s sharing her favorite Pi Day Activities for Middle School – including how to introduce pi to students who haven’t been exposed before! Don’t forget to enter the giveaways at the very end

Hey there! It’s Jamie from MissMathDork! I’m so incredibly excited to be a part of the ePIc Pi week Celebration!! Jennifer definitely saved the best activity for last (or maybe I’m just a wee bit partial)!

As a self-proclaimed math DORK it should be no surprise to you that Pi Day is basically the equivalent to Christmas in my house (my dad – who doesn’t have a math bone in his body – even calls me every year to wish me happy Pi day!). Each year there has to be a new Pi Shirt (this year I made my own!) and there HAS to be some fun activities! As my school is 5-8 (I teach all 4 of those grades!), and 5th graders haven’t been exposed to pi, I’ve come up with a few different activities to reach all levels of students. That’s when the chains came in! *sings* “chain, chain, chaaaaaaaaaaaaaain” YEAH! Chains….interlocking circles, get it?!!!

For my 5th grade kiddos (and this could easily work with grades lower than 5 – and higher than 5 – without needing adaptation! YEAH EASY!) we needed to VISUALIZE how random pi is! We decided to do that with color! For the Pi Chain, I went to Michael’s and purchased tons of fun color paper! YES, I splurged! I bought fun double sided, double colored card stock and bright, vibrant normal paper. I ended up cutting all the digit strips in half to make them about 5 inches long instead of 10 inches. This really helped make the Pi Chain more sturdy (and having the strips pre-cut meant there was no time wasted!) Last year, the chain was a huge hit. In 4 class periods, with only a portion of class (about 90 minutes total) spent on creating the chain, we were able to join 1000 links together. The kiddos have loved noticing the patterns, errrr… lack of patterns in the digits. We ended up taking the “final” product and placing it in a very public location with a fun sign. Let’s just say the color brought MANY eyes wanting to know what was going on. The chain was a great way to brighten an area of the school, bring PI-awareness, and show off our new creation!

Pi Day Activity for Middle School – Making a Pi chain!

Pi Day Activity for Middle School – Making a Pi chain!

Pi Day Activity for Middle School – Making a Pi chain!

For my 6th – 8th grade kiddos, who have been exposed to pi, needed a bit more math content. They too, wanted to make a chain, they just are being held accountable in a different way! They spent their days working on a Area and Circumference Chain activity. Because the activity was tiered, it allowed access for all students – those who needed whole numbers in their operations, decimals in their operations, multi-step of switching between radius and diameter or a combination of those options. Printing each of those chains on a different color also allowed for students to easily grab the tier they needed OR to add point values (tier 1 =1pt, tier 2 = 2pt, etc.). Using the point variation, you could tell students they needed to complete 20 points worth or problems, or see which team could get to 100 points first. Lots of fun ways to change it up depending on what would work best for your students.

If you’d like to check out some other PI Activities that I have, you might want to check out a post on my blog HERE

Whatcha think? Want to try one or both of my chain activities in your own classroom? I’m going to give away 3 sets of BOTH activities Sunday night! Enter and they could be yours!

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Welcome!

Jennifer Smith-Sloane has been an educator since 2003 with experience in elementary, middle school and college. Math has been her passion since a young age which no doubt resulted in her secondary math teaching career. Currently Jennifer is a Differentiated Curriculum Designer and Presenter traveling the nation to train teachers on the effectiveness of Interactive Notebooks and Differentiation in the classroom. When she is not traveling and training she lives in Arlington, TX with her husband Michael and their three furbabies.

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